A Beary Warm Valentine

You aren’t going to believe this.  I wouldn’t if I hadn’t been there.  But it really happened!

The day started out hectic, as usual in our house.   Valentine’s Day with the kids.  My gift? A healthy heart by taking them skiing instead of loading them up with saturated fats and chocolate.   My husband ended up staying home, to work on the Trout Bungalow uninterrupted.  So that left me, a single mom of the three precious and precocious sweethearts ready to hit the hard slopes with a vengeance.   I was a little nervous about the day, I have to admit.  It takes coordination to get a squirmy six year old safely on a chairlift, and anyone who knows me knows that I tend to trip, run into doors and do otherwise less coordinated acts on a daily basis.  But, I digress.

We eased into  some slow, easy runs.  The sun had come out toward the end of our drive, and it was amazingly beautiful out.  At the top of the mountain the views of the snow capped Pintlar Mountains and Georgetown Lake took my breath away.   What a magnificent, special place!   After a few runs my oldest wanted to hit a few harder runs, and my daughter found a friend to ski with.  That left me and Cade, my six year old.   We decided to do a few runs we hadn’t been on and safely boarded the chairlift again. About halfway up the lift, a skier below hollered “BEAR”!  I shouted “are you serious”?  There was no answer, so I dismissed any thought of a bear during ski season.  Cade and I maneuvered down the slopes, and returned to the chair. By the time we got back to the lift, all the lifty’s were buzzing.  “Did you see the bear?  Look to your left after the dip in the  slope; in the trees”!   I couldn’t believe it.   Can you say GLOBAL WARMING?

So, we took the chair up again.  We had another single rider with us, a woman who said she was “over it” skiing, since she had been there yesterday, and really the snow wasn’t all that great.   But, halfway up the lift, we looked to our left.  Sure enough, hanging for dear life on the TOP of a Lodgepole Pine, was a great big black bear.   We all saw it simultaneously.  Cade of course, was really confused.   “I thought bears HIBERNATE in the winter”!   Ya, so did I.

However, that bear sure brought a lot of smiles.  The demeanor of the woman who was riding with us totally shifted.  People on the lifts were shouting back to the next chair to check out the bear!  People were warm and fuzzy, and smiling.

Yes, it may be a bad sign that we saw a bear today.   After all, it is only February!   But, what an unusual and extraordinary day it turned out to be.  The bear stayed put all afternoon, probably as confused as all of us.  I can only imagine the bear thinking “What the hell are those creatures that float beneath me!  No way I’m coming down”!  It was, however, amazing to see how it brought people out of their own private shell.  Sunshine, warmth, and bears.  What a fuzzy way to spend my Valentine’s Day!!

LIFE LESSON? The unexpected things in life sometimes turn out to be some of the most memorable!